Who Knew...

So, I was talking to my mom this morning about Aidan's epilepsy. She informed me that Newsweek did an article trying to bring awareness to the seriousness of the disease. I have been a parent of an epileptic child for over 2 years now. I know that it is a serious condition, but I think reading this article made me realize just how serious it is. Epilepsy is scary for a million reasons, here are a couple: you never know when your child is going to have a seizure, it could be when he is climbing across the monkey bars, or just reached the top of the stairs, you never know how severe the next one will be, Aidan's seizures are never alike..they have evolved over the past 2 years, you never know if your child is going to stop breathing and if he does, will he start breathing again. Will he lose consciousness, will he hit his head, will he have a seizure when I am not there to take care of him, Can I trust someone else to know what to do if he has a seizure. See, these are questions that a parent of an epileptic child, or a child with seizure disorders thinks about. You feel like you have to limit your child, because you are always fearful that they will be in a situation that if a seizure happens at that moment it could kill them I.E. on top of the monkey bars. Hello, Aidan is 4. He loves the monkey bars, he loves sleeping in the top bunk, he is active. Honestly, I try not to think about all of the possible daily dangers. But, this article reminded me that more people die of epilepsy than of breast cancer. That is a scary fact, here I am attempting to do a walk in October for Breast Cancer Research, which I totally support, and hope they find a cure as soon as possible, but who is going to find a cure for epilepsy. Where are the walks and awareness campaigns for that. Epileptics have to live in fear everyday, the fear of the unknown. Will I have a seizure today? What will I be doing when it happens? ETc, Etc.

Sorry for the possibly dramatic post...however, it is quite scary to read the statistics of this disease. Aidan is on Keppra, we actually just increased his dose again last week. Next week he will have an ambulatory EEG, and an MRI. Neither which will be very fun for a 4 year old. We will be at Scottish Rite 3 days next week! UGGHHH!!! SO, just keep him in your prayers as we go through these tests next week!